Dr. Amanda B. Lowe is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Core Faculty and Associate Program Director and Clinical Coordinator for the Psy.D. Program in Counseling Psychology. She received her master’s degree and doctorate in clinical psychology from Duquesne University, a Human Science program grounded in phenomenological, psychoanalytic, and post-structural psychologies. She holds a certificate in qualitative and interpretive research and has most recently received postgraduate training in psychedelic therapy and research. She identifies as an existential-phenomenological psychologist. 

Across her career, the arc of Dr. Lowe’s professional development has centered on questions of how embodied, lived experiencing, cultural conditioning and lifeways, and bio-ecological material contexts intertwine to create human identities, behaviors, relations, and systems. She is an expert in experiential processes with lifelong practice and theoretical study of meditation, Focusing, phenomenology, psychotherapy, coaching, and professional reflective practice. The integrating priority of each element of Dr. Lowe’s academic and professional life has been to seek effective liberatory structural change by reclaiming the value and dignity of each person’s living, embodied experiencing and integrating authentic and skilled experiential, reflective, and relational processes into cultural life.

Pursuing her lifelong interest in the cultural dimensions of mental health, early in her career, Dr. Lowe created several entrepreneurial start-ups and pilot projects that sought to create techno-cultural interventions to improve mental health outcomes for communities. One key project was Get Into Therapy, a placement service that sought to ameliorate barriers to entry for outpatient treatment by helping psychotherapy clients, their loved ones, and other advocates navigate the mental health system through providing education, support and locating accessible outpatient treatment.

Dr. Lowe’s clinical work has primarily been with college students and adult SPMI and dual diagnosis community populations, and she has been involved with various research projects with the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State New Kensington. Formerly, she was core faculty in the PsyD program at Point Park University, where she served as the Director of the Psychology Clinic. Her current research interests include cultural, political, philosophical, and phenomenological aspects of psychedelic medicine, cross-cultural perspectives on spirituality, the impact of the internet and the COVID-19 crisis on psychological development and relationships in the United States, and Gendlinian focusing practice. 

Education

• PhD – Clinical Psychology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (2012)
• Certificate in Qualitative and Interpretive Research, Center for Qualitative and Interpretive Research, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (2008)
• MA – Clinical Psychology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA (2006)
• BA – Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major, University of California, Berkeley, CA (2000)

Professional Memberships

• American Psychological Association
• Pennsylvania Psychological Association
• Greater Pittsburgh Psychological Association

Research

• Cultural, political, philosophical, and phenomenological aspects of psychedelic medicine
• Cross-cultural perspectives on spirituality
• The impact of the internet and the COVID-19 crisis on psychological development and relationships in the United States
• Gendlinian focusing practice